Early voting going strong in Colorado recall election

Erika JohnsenPosted at 1:21 pm on September 9, 2013

In the wake of last December’s massacre in Newtown, a handful of states passed stricter gun-control measures for their states, largely along the lines of more restrictions on so-called ‘assault’ weapons and magazine capacity limits. Connecticut, New York, and Maryland’s new laws were the most notable, along with Colorado — but the gun-control changes haven’t been sitting too well with quite a few Coloradans. The momentum behind a grassroots effort to recall two state senators — who voted in favor of passing more gun control laws earlier this year, particularly a 15-round magazine capacity limit — has been growing in force over the summer, and Colorado’s first-ever recall election is finally taking place on Tuesday.

Gun rights advocates launched the recall initiative against Colorado Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron because they voted for stricter gun laws, including limiting the size of ammunition magazines and requiring universal background checks.

Early voting in Colorado’s first legislative recall elections has been strong so far.

Some voting centers opened early Friday in Morse’s El Paso County district after lines formed on Thursday — the first day of early voting there.

A spokesman for the clerk’s office said turnout was similar to that on a busy day during a presidential election.

Early voting has been under way in Giron’s Pueblo County district for a week with more than 7,000 people voting so far. More voting centers were added Thursday.

Charles Cooke has the full background story at National Review, and meanwhile, although Coloradans’ backlash to new gun restrictions might be the most organized and outright, other states that rushed through more gun-control restriction in the beginning of the year might want to take stock of things, too. I’d guess that Maryland, for instance, probably lacks the momentum for anything like a recall election, but their new gun laws go into effect on October 1st — and not all of their residents seem to be one hundred percent on board with it. Via Fox News:

Applications for gun purchases in Maryland are soaring ahead of the start of a tough new firearms law that sets new magazine capacity limits and bans the sale of certain types of assault weapons.

The Washington Times reported that state police received 85,141 gun-purchase applications this year through Aug. 31. That’s compared with 70,099 applications in all of 2012 and 46,339 applications in 2011. Maryland State Police have increased staffing to cope.

In August 2012, 38 employees were assigned to conduct background checks, but this year 73 employees are doing that work, according to Sgt. Marc Black. Black said 60 temporary staffers are also rotating hours. …

The new gun law Maryland lawmakers passed earlier this year bans 45 types of assault weapons, but people who own them now will be able to keep them. The law also limits handgun magazines to 10 rounds and requires people to submit fingerprints to the state police to get a license to buy a handgun.